One million women in Turkey quit jobs in five years to raise children

One million women in Turkey quit jobs in five years to raise children

ANKARA

One million women in Turkey have quit their jobs over the five-year period from 2010-2015 as a result of the duties bound to childcare, in addition to 112,000 others who have quit their jobs to care for the elderly, according to a study by the Turkish Enterprise and Business Confederation (TÜRKONFED).

TÜRKONFED’s “Report on Women in the Business World,” a report in the making which will be revealed later this year, has also found that 1.2 million women have quit their jobs upon the request of their husband in 2007, a figure that dropped to 588,000 in 2015.

“Taking action on the kindergarten issue is important but in case of a quick establishment in the insurance system for caretaking, we can recruit 500,000 women in the first instance in addition to bringing 1.1 million women back to work who had stepped out of the labor force,” said Tarkan Kadooğlu, the chairman of the business group.

A new system in the Turkish labor system must be formulized to create more space for women to keep continuing their professional work life and carry out their caretaking responsibilities in their private lives, he said.

“Social security systems financing children, the disabled, and elderly people’s care through means of childcare kindergarten fund and care insurance must be effectively used to improve the situation. This system will ease the access of women in the labor force and decrease the unemployment rate by contributing to job growth,” he told Hürriyet.

Kadooğlu said insufficient numbers of kindergartens, high costs, and a lack of confidence in the quality of the services, in contrast with families’ high demand for corporate care services create extra burdens on mothers.

TÜRKONFED’s Women in the Business World (İDK) Committee President Prof. Dr. Yasemin Açık said birth loans, social insurance premiums, and employment incentives encourage women to return to their careers after giving birth, playing an important role in increasing female employment rates.

Some 45.6 percent of women are paid less than 1,000 Turkish Liras per month, but this rate drops to 31 percent for men, the TÜRKONFED report prepared by Professors Oğuz Karadeniz and Hakkı Hakan Yılmaz has found.

It also analyses the social security system in Turkey, with regards to women’s entrance to the business world and their access to the social security system. The report submitted proposals aimed at increasing female labor in the business world by analyzing social welfare for female employment.